Midlands productions

Published: 27 March 2016
Reporter: Steve Orme

James Wilson Taylor in Bat-Fan at the Guildhall Theatre, Derby Credit: Steve Ullathorne
John Godber and Jane Thornton in Shafted! at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme Credit: Amy Charles Media
Rufus Hound as Sancho Panza and David Threlfall in the title role of Don Quixote in the Swan Theatre, Stratford Credit: Helen Maybanks

James Wilson-Taylor, “Batman’s biggest fan”, recaps all the Batman films in the world's first “Batsical” Bat-Fan, a Batman musical, at the Guildhall Theatre, Derby on Tuesday.

Talking Scarlet performs Stephen Kinsbury and Ben Sleep’s musical adaptation of The Railway Children at Buxton Opera House from Tuesday until Thursday.

The 21st anniversary tour of Riverdance trips into De Montfort Hall, Leicester from Tuesday until Thursday.

EastEnders favourites Shane Richie and Jessie Wallace take to the stage together in Peter James’s thriller The Perfect Murder at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry from Tuesday until Saturday.

The works of Gilbert and Sullivan, Novello, Lehar, Strauss, Monckton, Romberg and Stolz will be performed in A Grand Operetta Gala at Wolverhampton Grand on Wednesday.

John Godber’s new play which traces the lives of an ex-miner and his wife in the 30 years after the 1984 miners’ strike, performed by Godber and his wife Jane Thornton, Shafted! visits the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme from Wednesday until Saturday.

Kenneth MacMillan's adaptation of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet is a Birmingham Royal Ballet presentation at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from Wednesday until Saturday.

A new production of the Sherman Brothers’ musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang tours to the Regent Theatre, Stoke on Wednesday until Saturday 9 April.

Opera and Ballet International presents an Ellen Kent production of Puccini’s Tosca at Derngate, Northampton on Thursday.

A “celebration of dreams, enduring love, the resilience of the human spirit and the powerful pull between one man and his homeland”, Ireland’s Call dances into Wolverhampton Grand on Thursday.

A quiet Irish village community is turned upside down with the arrival of a Hollywood film crew, looking for the “real” Ireland for their latest schmaltzy blockbuster, in Marie Jones’s Stones in his Pockets in the B2 Studio at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry from Thursday until Saturday.

Michael Pennington takes the lead role in William Shakespeare’s King Lear at Northampton Royal from Friday until Saturday 23 April.

Proteus Theatre stages a “thoughtful, nostalgic and witty” one-woman show, Becoming Hattie, which looks at the life of Carry On star Hattie Jacques, in the Pavilion Arts Centre, Buxton on Saturday.

Inspired by writer Jonathan Coe’s school days in Birmingham and adapted for the stage by Richard Cameron, The Rotters’ Club features a cast of young performers drawn from Birmingham REP’s youth theatres who will perform on the REP’s main stage from Saturday until Saturday 9 April.

Jodie Prenger plays Emma in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black’s song cycle Tell Me on a Sunday at Buxton Opera House on Sunday.

Redhead Reach in association with Found Theatre presents Anne of Green Gables, a play with music by Collene Louisa Webb, adapted from L M Montgomery's novel, at the Guildhall Theatre, Derby from Sunday until Wednesday 6 April.

At the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, Paapa Essiedu plays the lead role in Hamlet which continues until Saturday 13 August while in the Swan Theatre Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote, which features David Threlfall in the title role and Rufus Hound as Sancho Panza, continues until Saturday 21 May, and Sandy Grierson and Oliver Ryan share the roles of Faustus and Mephistopheles in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus which continues until Thursday 4 August.

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